70 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
70 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/book-page.css" />
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<p>
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Today's session has been rather slow-paced: the heroes spent some time in a
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port, gathering information about the nearby islands, and eventually decided
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to set sail towards the Silver Monolith, a mysterious structure rising from
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the depths of the ocean, seemingly connecting water and sky. They performed a
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travel roll — rolling a d10 since they're in the middle of the ocean — and it
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came up a 10.
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</p>
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<p>
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The group is in the mood for a classic "random battle", so the Game Master
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decides to come up with a dangerous sea encounter: some kind of huge,
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monstrous beast. Sometimes you just want a straightforward fight.
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</p>
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<h2>Creature Design Decisions</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>
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There are two level 9 heroes, which means one needs to be careful — they
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don't have a lot of actions and options. Looking at the creatures in the
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Bestiary (page 326), the thornfish catches the GM's eye: it's level 10 and a
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flying fish, which will make things interesting since one of the Player
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Characters is strictly a melee combatant.
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</li>
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<li>
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Most of the thornfish's abilities are fine as they are, but the Game Master
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wants this to be a Hard battle (thus involving soldiers equal to the number
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of Player Characters plus one), and for the creature to be a champion. Since
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it replaces three soldiers, the thornfish — actually, let's call this big
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boy a <strong>thornshark</strong> — will gain three additional Skills and
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some of its stats will be improved.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Stat Adjustments</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>
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When it comes to stats, the thornshark will have three times the Hit Points
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of a normal Thornfish (for a total of 150 HP), twice the normal amount of
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Mind Points, and will increase its Initiative by 3 points.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Finally, regarding Skills: The GM wants this creature to threaten both Player
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Characters with its weaker attack, ocean jet, so they think about taking
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Special Attack and giving it multi (2). This seems a bit excessive, so they
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instead pick Crisis Effect and have the Thornshark gain multi when in Crisis.
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A nasty surprise, but manageable.
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</p>
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<h2>Unique Abilities</h2>
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<p>
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The GM decides to make the creature a bit more special. It's a big flying fish
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and the heroes are on a boat in the middle of the ocean, so it's given a
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Unique Action — it can dive underwater and become immune to normal attacks
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until the start of its next turn or until it loses Hit Points. This Skill
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could be quite frustrating, but one of the Player Characters is a capable
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Elementalist and will certainly prove her usefulness here. She has the
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bolt-type spell Thunderbolt, which she can use to force the thornshark out of
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the water and down on the ship's deck.
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</p>
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<p>
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Finally, the creature is given <strong>Damage Immunity</strong> to ice damage
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— let's hope the Player Characters spend a turn Studying this big fish and
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don't waste any of their precious resources on frost attacks!
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</p>
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